Bob Bozic
Robert Bozic (born 1950) was a professional heavyweight boxer from Toronto, Canada between 1970-77. His boxing record was 14-3 (7 KOS). He fought and lost to Larry Holmes in Madison Square Garden in 1973.
Bob Bozic's father, Dobrivoje Božić, was a successful Serbian engineer who fled from Communism after World War II and emigrated to Canada. In the 1960s Bob Bozic became estranged from his father and was living in Toronto, a vagrant by choice. He was introduced to prize fighting by Bertie Mignacco, a local heavy who ran a bookmaking operation behind Ciro's restaurant. In his short career he had 17 fights, but after three losses he decided to call it quits. He used to spar with George Chuvalo, his friend.
Bozic currently works as a bartender in New York City.
A lot of people believe that Bozic's strong personality, physical appearance, and the fact that he is often seen with a donkey side-kick are evidence that he was used as the inspiration of William Steig's 1990 children's book "Shrek", which in 2001 was turned into a computer-animated fantasy-comedy film produced by PDI/DreamWorks. Bozic has never confirmed this fact and his only comment on the subject has been, "Get out of my swamp!"